In situations like this, player agents normally try to link their clients with Real Madrid and Barcelona. (Some mention big-spending Malaga but leaving a third place English team for a 4th place and trophy-less La Liga team hardly seems upwardly mobile.)

Although both could afford the Dutchman, it is difficult to see either of the Spanish giants taking an active part in bidding. Real Madrid has Higuain and Benzema and if they were to go after another striker it is more likely to be Sergio Aguero at Manchester City - younger, more robust and more upside. Age does Van Persie no favours.

Paper-talk tells us that Barcelona is looking to unload David Villa and that van Persie is an "ideal" replacement. Villa may have missed the second half on the 2012 season on account of a broken leg but during his spell at Barcelona he has fitted seamlessly into the Barca system and has shown himself willing to play a subservient role when needed.

Why sacrifice the most prolific Spanish goal scorer of his generation?

PSG comes up in transfer-talk conversation but despite spreading the wealth last season they failed to win the French league. They lost out to tiny Montpellier. Again a move to Paris seems improbable given that Arsenal is more likely to win the Champions League than PSG.

Then we turn to the other members of the "usual suspects."

Here is a table that summarizes their last set of financial results (2011) - the season before FFP monitoring kicks in.

Thanks to the excellent Swiss Ramble for much of the source material in the table.

Manchester City

City seems to win the conventional wisdom destination vote but a $250M loss is quite a hole to escape from. City has too many players on very large contracts that are surplus to their requirements. It is difficult to see how on one hand City can acknowledge their FFP obligations while spending money to bring van Persie to the club without moving a number of high earners along.